Using the “secret” Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder to Create Step by Step Screenshot Documents

Using the “secret” Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder to Create Step by Step Screenshot Documents

When I show this tool to developers or QA guys, their eyes light up with excitement. When you work in Application Compatibility, you spend a lot of time documenting problems ;-).  In this post, I’ll talk about some of the tricks and tools I use for documenting issues.

There’s a slick new tool called the Problem Steps Recorder that is included in Windows 7.  It’s intended for users to capture step by step actions and screenshots to illustrate a problem. It’s a great tool for its intended use. However, if you create a lot of documents with screenshots or need to document a procedure, this tool can save you a lot of time.

 

Finding PSR

The biggest issue with PSR is finding it.  Since it’s intended as a troubleshooting tool, the tool is not directly exposed in the Start menu or Control Panel. When I demo PSR, my corny joke is “You need to use PSR to show people how to find PSR.”

Here are two ways to launch the tool:

  1. Launch the executable by typing psr.exe from a command prompt or the search bar.
  2. Type the keyword “record” in the search bar:
    image

 

“Leveraging” the Output

After you record your steps, PSR saves the report in a zipped MHTML file. This is so you can easily send the report to someone via e-mail. Within the MHTML file, the screenshots are jpg files. Just right click and “Copy” the images from the report to paste into your own documentation. I’ve had mixed luck with trying to copy and paste a section of screenshots.  I prefer pasting a single screenshot into a Word document.  Try both to see what works for you.

 

Missing Screenshots

Before you create a nice long capture showing your Mom how to configure her mail client, there are a few common problems that may result in lost screenshots.

 

“No screenshots were saved for this problem step” issue

By default, PSR only saves the last 25 screenshots to help reduce the size of the capture file. If you will be capturing more than 25 screenshots, increase the “Number of recent screen captures to store” setting.

image

 

“There are windows on your desktop that are running as administrator” issue

PSR launches as a standard user and will warn that there are applications that are running elevated on the desktop.  If PSR is running as a standard user, it won’t be able to capture any screenshots or interactions with applications running elevated.  To fix this issue, follow the advice PSR gives you and run PSR elevated.

 

Don’t Forget about the Snipping Tool

For quick screenshots, I like the Snipping Tool (snippingtool.exe). It originally started as a PowerToy and has been included in all editions of OS beginning with Vista. It can capture window, rectangular, free form, and full screen snips. It’s quite handy.  I used it for the snips in this post.

 

Snip Tip:

You may have noticed I captured the Start menu in one of my screenshots.  This trick is outlined in the Snipping tool help. To capture a menu: Start the tool; Press Esc; Display the menu; Press Ctrl+Prnt Scrn and then use the snipping tool to capture the menu.

 

Capturing Dialog Box Text

Okay, this has nothing to do with PSR but I use this all the time when describing a problem, creating documentation, or searching for known errors. If you press Ctrl-C when a dialog box is active, the text is sent to the clipboard.  For example, if I press Ctrl-C when this dialog is active:

image

The clipboard contains the following:

---------------------------
 Problem Steps Recorder Warning
 ---------------------------

There are windows on your desktop that are running as administrator.

If you want to record your interactions with them, you may have to run the Problem Steps Recorder as administrator as well.

You can do this by clicking on the shield button next to the time counter on the Problem Step Recorder UI. Please note that your current recording session will be discarded if you do so.
 ---------------------------
 OK
 ---------------------------

I hope this helps. Happy documenting…

41 thoughts on “Using the “secret” Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder to Create Step by Step Screenshot Documents”

  4. LisaM,

    As far as I know it should be. It is part of Windows Error Reporting which should be in all versions of Win 7.

    Pat

  5. Very useful for documentation. Also, if you extract the file from the zip file, you can right click and edit on World and do any changes you need!

  7. Hello, I have been searching the internet to find the solutions to locate my unsaved snips from the Snipping Tool on a Windows 7 and came across this post during my search.

    I'm able to find an answer, if you Google search this, you will see what I am saying, as a result,do any of you know how I can locate my unsaved snips from the Snipping tool? These would be snips taken two weeks from the original snip. I did not save them. I just took them and pasted them into Microsoft office calendar event, but the image is no longer there.

  10. I miss an option to see, what is a current number of saved screens, because there is only limited number of screens possible.

    The best would be to set it to unlimited.

  18. Cathy & Heather, PSR is intended to collect what's happening on the machine. It's a troubleshooting tool.  If you only wanted to collect from one display, you would need to disable the others.

    Pat

  20. PSR is great but is limited to 100 frames.  the settings are maxed out at 100. what can I use to increase my sample size to 1 hour worth of data. I have a problem which is only intermittent and need to track the customer inputs.I'm desperate.

    Thanks.

  21. Nice..I am using windows 10 but I still use this tools. Old school but very useful. Good tool for beginners like me..Thanks.

  22. Hi, I am not able to get the desired output using PSR. It is neither showing screen shot nor populating any errors.
    It shows following result:

    Recording Session: 1/1/1601 5:30:00 AM – 5:30:00 AM

    Problem Steps: 0, Missed Steps: 0, Other Errors: 0

    Operating System: 7601.18933.x86fre.win7sp1_gdr.150715-0600 6.1.1.0.2.4

    CAn you help me out in this?
    Thanks in advance.

  23. It helped a lot as I’m not a windows expert (I’m a mainframe long time worker), but I need to collect the response time from several applications running under windows.

  25. I know you may not consider the simplicity of the users of the tool but after step 1 telling them to click record is pretty important and adding a screen shot of what the psr looks like would help too.

  27. I needed this information for a homework assignment because they only gave instructions for Windows 10 computers. Thanks a bunch!!!

  32. This is immensely powerful and invaluable for anyone designing applications and troubleshooting however it has severe limitations. For instance, I discovered something is running in the background on my pc and everyone I power off a window pops up telling me another process is still running than it ultimately shuts down. I am keen to discover what process is running that resultsin that window opening. I want to start PSR and leave it running thru power down and review a saved file from PSR at power up. But PSR does not work that way. Also. Since I now fear some kind of hack on my system I would like the capability of saving every single step that is executed on my win 7 machine by me and by anything running so I can review and determine if my system has been hacked. Ideas anyone? Thanks. Pete

    • Hi Pete,

      Problem steps recorder is designed to capture a user’s steps when reproducing an error. PSR wouldn’t be a good tool for your scenario.

      When Windows shuts down, all applications are notified to close. Applications can indicate they are not ready for shutdown. That’s why you see a “application preventing shutdown” message. In most cases, Windows will close the application anyway. In certain cases, the application can block shutdown (e.g. unsaved file). As the user, you have the option to force shutdown. In which case, Windows will terminate the application. If you’re interested in the technical programming details, see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms700677(VS.85).aspx.

      You probably have an application that isn’t playing nicely with shutdown requests. You can try blocking shutdown to get a longer look at the list of applications preventing shutdown. Open Notepad and type in some text. Shutdown your computer. Since your Notepad file isn’t saved, it will block shutdown. Windows should show you a list of applications that are preventing shutdown.

      Good luck,
      Pat

  33. Hello Pat,
    this is an amazing tool. Very useful article too. Thank you.
    The only gap I see is related to the performance. That is, with the intent to show to my developer the slowness of the tool performing some specific tasks, I wasn’t able to capture the response time into the snapshot.
    Could you suggest another tool make me able to do this? Can we do this on PSR?

    I appreciate all of your tips and tricks.

    • Hi Franco,

      Thanks for the kind words. To capture video, you’ll need screen capture software like Camtasia. If you are looking for a free Microsoft tool, I like Expression Encoder. The trial allows you to capture up to 10 minutes and encode a Windows Media Video (wmv). Windows includes a wmv player – Windows Media Player. The developer should be able to view the file you create.

      Pat

  34. Problem There are windows on your desktop that are running as administrator :”To fix this issue, follow the advice PSR gives you and run PSR elevated.” How? It is not possible to shift-right click to run as admin or another account,.

    • Hi Pat,

      You can right click PSR in the start menu. After searching, right click the Steps Recorder entry in the list and select “Run as Administrator”.

      Pat

    • Hi Natasha,

      No. You can’t record audio. However, you can use the “Add Comment” button to highlight and insert typed comments into the capture.

      Pat

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